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The secret’s out: on August 24th, 2007, UN weapons inspectors found 6 to 8 vials of chemical weapons sitting in an office at the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) headquarters in NYC. They found the vials when archiving files due to the fact that UNMOVIC is closing down its mission. They placed the vials in a sealed package and put them in a safe located in a secured room. Subsequently, on August 29, 2007, UNMOVIC employees discovered the inventory list which listed the content of the vials. The vials contained the chemical phosgene, which according to the...

UN Inspectors Find Chemical in UN Office Thursday, August 30, 2007 UNITED NATIONS - U.N. weapons inspectors discovered potentially hazardous chemical agents in their office near U.N. headquarters that were probably taken from Iraq's main chemical weapons facility 11 years ago, officials said Thursday. snip UNMOVIC has 1,400 linear feet of files and it took until Wednesday to find the inventory the number matched which indicated that the material was from Iraq's main chemical weapons facility at Muthana, near Samarra. http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp?cat=TopStories&id=20070830/46d640c0_3ca6_1552620070830482500886

<p>ABC reported on their website blog about 20 min ago that United Nations weapons inspectors discovered six to eight vials of a dangerous nerve gas, phosgene, as they were cleaning out offices at a U.N. building in New York this morning, federal authorities tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com. The federal authorities said the office, in a U.N. building near headquarters, was being evacuated and the White House had been notified at 10 a.m. New York police and fire officials said federal authorities had not notified them of any problem at the U.N. building, as of 11 a.m. A U.N. spokesperson said a statement would be issued shortly.</p>

Nerve gas found at UN.

It's clearly necessary to begin thinking about what form deterrence will take against future terrorist attacks on the U.S. At least 5 such attacks have been prevented at the operational stage by Bush administration policies over the last six years. What is needed is more serious consideration of the value of policies that deter such attacks. This is likely to become a more pressing concern, as America's ability to interrupt such attacks, if a Democrat becomes President, will be severely eroded. The Democrats are profoundly indifferent to national security, and have even managed to convince themselves that terrorism is some...

BAGHDAD — Saddam Hussein's cousin and two other former regime officials were convicted Sunday of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang for the brutal crackdown that killed up to 180,000 Kurdish civilians and guerrillas two decades ago. Two other defendants were sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the 1987-1988 crackdown, known as "Operation Anfal." A sixth defendant was acquitted for lack of evidence. Death sentences are automatically appealed. The most notorious defendant was Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for ordering the use of mustard gas and nerve agents...

What exactly was moved out of Iraq? Two weeks before the war started, Hans Blix presented a report called, Unresolved Disarmament Issues. For those who don’t trust or believe the Bush Administration’s claims about WMD, this report is a much better description of the alleged threat that Saddam’s Regime posed. After the war, the Iraq Survey Group scoured the country looking to answer the Unresolved Disarmament Issues and to assess the threat of WMD posed by Saddam’s regime. Combined, the before and after reports are a little under 1200 pages. The difference between the two-that is to say the Remaining...

Saddam’s “Special Weapons” went by air to Syria, Belarus, and possibly Russia and Libya as well. They went by ground to Syria, and they went by sea to points unreported. The plan was called “Sarindar” (“Emergency Exit”), and wasn’t much different in general strategic terms from the American flight from Saigon, South Vietnam. Just as US embassy officials shredded and burned documents in Saigon, and again in Tehran, Kabul, and a dozen other fallen nations, the Russians and others did what they could to move, hide, and/or destroy their sensitive documents, equipment that they’d provided to Saddam’s Regime, and allegedly...

These are the "birth pangs" of a "new Middle East," said Condi Rice last summer, as Israel pounded Lebanon. Unfortunately, the new Middle East may make us all pray for the return of the old. Hamas is today engaged in savage street-fighting with Fatah for control of Gaza. If Hamas prevails, it could convert this Palestinian enclave into a terrorist base camp between Israel and Egypt. In northern Lebanon, Islamic jihadists are battling the army for control of a Palestinian refugee camp. Scores are dead. On Wednesday, a seventh parliamentarian was assassinated with his son in a Beirut car bomb...

U.S. and British officials are circulating a proposal at the U.N. Security Council to end the U.N. inspectors' search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The proposal has already been the subject of staff meetings and officials have told The New York Times that permanent members of the Security Council seem ready to go along with the proposal to "terminate immediately the mandates" of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States froze the assets Friday of four Iranian companies, alleging they are involved in Iran's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The Treasury Department named the companies as Pars Tarash (aka Pars Trash Company), Farayand Technique, Fajr Industries Group, and Mizan Machine Manufacturing Group. The action was taken under an executive order aimed at freezing the assets of proliferators of WMDs and their supporters, the department said in a statement. The Treasury is barring all transactions between the companies and any US person and freezes any assets the companies may have under US jurisdiction. "So...

American Bar Association Address American Bar Association Address by Hans Blix Hans Blix, Weapon of Mass Destruction Commission Chairman, was a luncheon speaker at the annual spring meeting of the American Bar Association Section of International Law. His topics included weapons of mass destruction, the Bush administration, and Iraq. 5/4/2007: WASHINGTON, DC: 47 min.

South Korea wants to buy four Global Hawk UAVs, for about $50 million each. The United States wants to sell South Korea the UAVs. But Russia, and their lawyers, insist that the sale cannot be made. The Russians claim that, according to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the Global Hawk can, in theory, be used as a delivery system for weapons of mass destruction. That makes Global Hawk a "Category I system", under the MTCR, and thus illegal for the United States to sell to a foreign country. Here's where it gets tricky. The MTCR was established twenty years...

Thursday, May 10, 2007 What George Tenet doesn't say about WMDs Posted: May 10, 2007 By Jack Cashill © 2007 I talked to Dave Gaubatz last week before he had a chance to read "At The Center of the Storm" by former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet. But I can imagine what he might have said of Tenet's blanket claim that "we at CIA had been wrong in believing that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction." "Nonsense." And the fully apolitical Gaubatz is in a position to know. Upon retiring from the Air Force with most of his 20-year...

The mildly toxic chemical melamine is commonly added to animal feed in China,...

The resolution offered by the gentleman from Ohio reads sensibly. It alleges crimes high and low, misdemeanors galore -- all of them representing an effort to mislead the American people and take them into war. It is Dennis Kucinich's articles of impeachment directed at Dick Cheney. The vice president will, of course, deny being a liar. As long as Kucinich is at it, add that to the articles. The congressman's case is persuasive, although his remedy may be too radical. He calls for Cheney to be impeached by the House and tried by the Senate, just as Bill Clinton was...

Lost in all the coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy were the sobering words of Vice President Dick Cheney about a calamity facing America that will dwarf anything it has ever experienced as a nation. Characterizing it as "the greatest threat we face," Cheney once again raised the ugly specter of nuclear terrorism against the U.S. "It's a very real threat," he said, "something that we have to worry about and defeat every single day." Tying the warning to politicking over Iraq war policy, he said a precipitous withdrawal from that country by U.S. military forces would invite and encourage...

It's a familiar scene: A Clinton holdover writes a book attacking the Bush administration and is paraded around through the network newsrooms for partisan fun and his own profit. I'm talking about George Tenet's soon-to-be released book attacking Cheney and Rice, absolving himself of all error and making a puzzling claim about what he meant when he said the Iraqi WMD program was a "slam dunk" basis for justifying war on Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

This is a quite big deal that most of us totally missed last night: John Edwards doesn't believe there's a "global war on terror," at least not in the simple-show-of-hands sense. This is something a lot of Democrats say privately -- and something mainstream pols everywhere else in the world say publicly -- but it contests a Bush administration premise in a way very few American politicians have been comfortable in the last five and a half years. His stance -- though it doesn't seem to have been all that deliberate -- matches the recent comments of a prominent British...

As the Evidence Mounts, It's Hard to Deny That Saddam Hussein Had to GoYesterday, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney, citing his role in deceiving the American public on the reason to go to war in Iraq and topple the Saddam Hussein government. Dennis Kucinich is the guy who always runs for President, so he is on the radar once every four years. Oh yeah, he is also the guy who pushes his way to the aisle to have his picture taken with President Bush at each State of the Union address. He...